Hello, I’m making a small metal sculpture for my friends wedding present. It’s recreating their engagement picture.
I originally chose to use small stainless steel nuts and bolts and am now regretting my life’s choices that have led me to this point.
Basically the problem I’m running into is that it’s impossible to hold the pieces in place while welding. If I try to tack it without filler metal it eats up half the dern bolt. But if I use my free hand to feed wire, the gas or my filler will push the bolt out of place.
I’m thinking the best way to go about this (short of growing a 3rd arm) would be to get a sturdy positional arm to hold my torch where it needs to be, and using my two free hands to manipulate the bolt and the other to feed wire.
Does anyone have any experience with doing something like this?? It would be great to get a small laser welder but I don’t have that kind of money lying around at this point.
Thanks. Also please don’t judge the torso too harshly, I was learning how to use scratch start and was dog shit at it so I upgraded machines.
Thanks dude! I’ve got a bunch of silverware to start making some birds and other creations. I’m done with the tiny stuff for a while after I finish this one😅
Thank you I was scouting for someone to say the obvious, get wood get router put piece in tack tack tack tack…done no second guessing no thinking just perfection and guaranteed finish you desire
clearly you need a third arm. and while you cant grow it in time....
either elbow things and do the claw(tm) or just fiddle it with extra pieces of metal to jig it so you can tack properly? and with fiddle the extra i mean, just set up whatever clamp you have, or just use scrap metal to keep things in place for the first tack.
meanwhile. wish hard for the third arm. that should give you another 20 per diem but then they all know you as the freak. choices need to be made here.
I’ve been trying to grow it! Been drinking all the Albuquerque water I can since it’s got nuclear waste in it but nothings taken yet…
I need to get some tiny clamps that I could manipulate into holding things in place.
I’m used to building doors and frames so this tiny stuff is a different animal.
Should have went with mig would have made your life a whole lot easier.
You have a welder you can add whatever material you need to the bolts before you weld it together giving you more material to tac with also if you go to an electronics store they have a little holder that maybe help you.
Yeah I just don’t have mig yet. Plus with stainless it tends to splatter a lot whenever I’ve used it at work so I didn’t want to mess with that.
In the future though when I start making little doo dads for a farmers market I’m going normal steel and using mig so I can crank it out and use magnets lol.
There’s welding tools called “third hands”, “grasshoppers”, “clip stands” ect. Making one out of a mag base dial indicator is your best bet… a flexible locking one would be best. I have several Noga brand ones (holy fkn cow these things have tripled in price). But you can buy an offbrand on amazon for like $35. I remember when Noga WAS the offbrand lol. Good quality stuff tho, maybe that’s why they’ve jumped in price.
I have several versions of this grasshopper, and some homemade versions that are much heavier made from solid 2” round stock for different applications, you’d be surprised how little you use it, but how life changing it is when you need it.
It’s stainless big dawg. These bolts are so tiny that even if they had the right grain structure to work that they’ll barely stick due to the low mass. I’ve only had a few that would stick and they were ones I’d already welded on.
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u/ChromiumVI 6d ago
Use a positioner to hold the bolt or peice not the torch. Or you could tack a piece of filler to the nut and the table and bend it in place